The Hogwarts Christmas Party: Truth or Dare
by FlashFiction
Summary: "Why do people even play this game?" Rolanda Hooch's game of Truth or Dare has staff out of their comfort zone. WAY out of their comfort zone!


Christmas! The very word sent pleasant tingles down Rolanda Hooch's spine. She loved the holiday almost as much as Quidditch finals. She loved the snow and the bauble covered trees. She loved the feasts and the gifts (giving or receiving). She loved the eggnog, which she almost always drank too much of, and she loved the parties. It so happened that tonight was a party and nothing, not even the recent petrification of students, was going to stop her enjoying herself.

She glanced in the mirror, admiring the garland of holly she wore around her neck; it went so well with her bright yellow eyes. In fact her entire outfit was contrasting well, some particularly good judgement on her part. Smiling her half smile, she raced out of her room and almost skipped down the corridor.

When Rolanda reached the staffroom, she barely recognized it. That morning it had been the plain, boring, slightly dusty room that it had always been. Now it resembled a small woodland forest, with snowflakes and glass orbs hovering in mid air, a few small pine trees, strung up with fairy lights and a patch of mistletoe here or there. It was a heart warming sight.

"Rolanda," a warm voice said, "come and have a drink."

The headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, smiled and offered her a goblet.

"I seem to remember that eggnog was your particular poison." he said brightly.

Rolanda grinned, a bit sheepishly, and accepted his offering.

Looking around, she saw that most of the staff were there. Pomona Sprout and Aurora Sinistra. Filius Flitwick and Poppy Pomfrey. Minerva McGonagall was there, she had even tied a red ribbon to her hat for the occasion.

_Oh well, _Rolanda thought, _at least she's trying. _

Gilderoy Lockhart was trying too hard, wearing robes of a bright red and green.

_Flouncy bloody peacock, _she thought, forgetting that she had on robes of the same colour.

The last staff member to arrive was Septima Vector, who was stopped at the door by Gilderoy. He had been pursuing her to no avail, ever since he had arrived.

"Mistletoe." he whispered, glancing at the bunch hanging from the door frame.

He leaned forward.

"Ha aha aha aha - NO!" Septima said firmly, ducking out from underneath his arm.

Rolanda smiled as she approached.

"It's bad luck, you know. To leave someone under the mistletoe."

Septima rolled her eyes and pushed some of her black hair off her face.

"I'd rather ten years bad luck, than ten seconds with his tongue in my mouth."

Rolanda agreed and offered her some eggnog.

Septima looked at it for a second before saying, "no, actually I'd like to remember this tomorrow. I'll just stick to the punch."

The festivities were going well. Crackers had been pulled (Rolanda getting a grow-your-own Christmas tree and, for unknown reason, a crepe pan), songs had been sung (Rolanda, the loudest of all) and many glasses of eggnog had been consumed. Not content to leave it there, Rolanda decided to take it to the next level.

"I hear the Gryffindors are planning a secret party," she said, "we should go join them!"

"Really, Rolanda!" Minerva sighed. "A teacher, gate crashing a student party!"

"Why not?" Rolanda exclaimed, "I haven't done it for years!"

"And there's probably good reason for that." Pomona said, soundly.

Rolanda shrugged, thought for a moment, then cried, "I know! We should play Truth or Dare!"

Septima looked skeptical. Minerva shook her head. Aurora, however, seemed quite thrilled.

"I've never played that game before!" she trilled excitedly.

"There you go, Minerva!" Rolanda said, "Who are we to stop someone experiencing anything?"

Minerva glanced at Poppy, who wasn't looking keen either.

"Oh, come on you guys! It's a classic!" Rolanda insisted.

"I'm in!" said Aurora, brightly.

"Why not?" shrugged Poppy, her competitive nature kicking in.

"Oh, if I must!" Minerva cried in an exasperated voice, but she looked a little excited.

"Suppose if everyone's playing." Pomona said.

"This could end badly." warned Septima, but she made her way over to the couches with everyone else.

"What are you doing?" Rolanda asked, "We're supposed to sit in a circle on the floor!"

Minerva just stared at her.

"Rolanda," she said, "this is not a sleepover and we are not seventeen."

Rolanda shrugged and plonked herself on the carpet between Minerva and Septima, both of whom chose chairs.

"Anyone else playing?" Rolanda called to the room. "Filius? Albus?"

Filius shook his head, a little bit embarrassed. Albus smiled, kindly.

"As much as I admire your exuberance, Rolanda," he said, "I'm afraid I must sit out this time."

Rolanda looked around, but no one else seemed to be keen. She turned to the small group she had collected.

"Who goes first?"

When no one spoke up, Pomona said "I guess I could have a go. I pick truth."

Rolanda groaned.

"Truth is boring!"

"But, Ro," Aurora reminded her, "we're playing 'Truth or Dare'! Not 'or Dare'."

Rolanda grumbled, but the others pressed on.

"Um... What is your most embarrassing moment?" Poppy asked.

Pomona went red.

"Really? Isn't that a tad immature?"

"No!" cried Rolanda, who seemed to have a renewed interest in truth.

Pomona looked from Poppy to Aurora then back to Poppy, as if trying to find a way out.

"Okay," she finally sighed. "When I was sixteen I was a chaser on my house team. It was my first game and I was super excited. So I got in the air, grabbed the quaffle and sped off towards the hoops. I passed everyone, scored and I thought I was doing really well! Until I realized-"

She broke off.

"Until I realized I had scored through the wrong set of hoops."

She hung her head as Poppy clapped loudly and slowly, Septima let out a snort and Minerva said, "well I hope you weren't in Gryffindor!"

"I was in Hufflepuff, actually," said Pomona, in an uncharacteristically icy way.

"Who's next? Who's next!" Rolanda cried, clapping her hands like a happy toddler.

Aurora raised her hand.

"I will go next. I'll humour you Ro, and pick dare."

Rolanda clapped her hands and whispered, "spike - the - punch!" in a little chant.

Aurora, who had so far looked confident, shrank back a little.

"I can't do that! What if I get caught?"

"You have to do it," said Rolanda, "or you face the deadly consequences of the forfeited dare!"

Minerva turned to her in surprise.

"I didn't know there were consequences!"

Rolanda nodded seriously.

"If you forfeit a dare or truth, someone will write chicken, on your forehead, in _Magic Miss: Colour Stay Lipstick_, which we all know takes at least week to fade."

Aurora looked horrified.

"You wouldn't dare!" she cried.

Rolanda raised an eyebrow.

"Wouldn't I?"

"She would!" said Poppy.

"Definitely would!" added Minerva.

"You should probably do it." said Pomona.

Aurora stood up, looking mutinous. Why had she agreed to this game?

"You are a terrible influence on these good people, Rolanda." she said, before walking, in what she obviously thought was a unsuspicious way, to the table where the punch sat.

Hesitantly, she picked up a bottle of Firewhisky and unscrewed the cap. Slowly she tipped the contents in to the once alcohol free mixture. It fizzed slightly, but it was impossible to tell that the offending substance was there. Aurora looked back at the group, who was watching her with baited breath. She gasped as Albus walked towards the table. Thinking quickly, she deposited the empty bottle in the pot of a near by Christmas tree.

"There!" Aurora hissed as she returned to the group.

"I didn't think you were going to do it." said Minerva, patting her on the back.

"I think Albus might have seen me." Aurora said quietly.

"Not that he'll remember it, if he keeps drinking that punch." Septima quipped.

"I think it's Poppy's turn." Pomona smiled.

Poppy looked apprehensive, then said "dare me!"

"You have to..." Rolanda mused.

"Stand up and sing, to the entire room, the first verse to _A Cauldron Full Of Hot, Strong Love._" Minerva said quickly.

"Oh Minerva, that's evil!" Rolanda smiled, "You can't know how proud I am of you right now."

Poppy blanched.

"_Sing_?" she whimpered, "In front of everyone?"

"Come on Poppy, we did carols before!" said Septima.

"Well I didn't have to do it on my own!" Poppy cried, indignantly.

But Rolanda put on her Don't-Make-Me-Lipstick-You face and Poppy stood up reluctantly.

Looking at the floor, Poppy opened her mouth and began to sing.

"_Oh, come and stir my cauldron_

_And if you do it right_

_I'll boil you up some hot, strong love_

_To keep you warm tonight"_

Her voice was powerful, bluesy and surprisingly good. She sat down, to loud cheers from the group and confused applause from everyone else.

"That wasn't even a dare!" Rolanda said, annoyed at her friends trickery.

"I didn't know you could sing!" Minerva exclaimed.

"I used to do it at the Leaky Cauldron. Wednesdays and Thursdays." Poppy said, quietly, embarrassed but pleased about the response she got.

"I think you should do another one!" Rolanda said, firmly.

"I think Minerva should do one!" said Aurora.

"Yeeeessss!" Rolanda grinned, "Come on Minnie!"

"Call me Minnie again and I will hex your face off!" Minerva said calmly.

"Don't play the game and I will write 'sourpuss' on everything you own." Rolanda retorted.

Minerva rolled her eyes and said, "Fine! Truth."

"What is your deepest, darkest fear?" asked Aurora.

The witches leaned in on their friend, obviously intrigued about what less seemingly fearless woman would say.

Minerva looked around the group.

"My deepest, darkest fear," she said, quietly, "is that one day the people I love will turn on me and every decision I have made will come back to bite me."

"OHMYGOD, Minerva!" Aurora cried, throwing an arm around her colleague.

"And here I was expecting spiders or something!" muttered Pomona.

"You know we wouldn't do that!" comforted Poppy.

"Alright, alright," said Rolanda. "Minerva, we love you, but let's keep playing."

Poppy shot a disdainful look at her.

Minerva said, "I agree with Rolanda. Septima it's your turn."

The Arithmancy professor looked cocky and said, "you know I take dare!"

"Can you handle it?" Rolanda teased.

"I can handle anything!" said Septima, somewhat arrogantly.

"Right!" beamed Rolanda, "Something awful, for Little Miss Confidence."

She thought for a moment then sat up straight, with a look of pure inspiration.

"I have it!" she breathed, in a far away voice.

She whispered her idea in Minerva's ear.

"My God woman, that's _terrible_!" Minerva exclaimed, in a scandalized voice.

She whispered it to Aurora, who stared at Septima with her big, blue eyes, before bursting out laughing. Aurora whispered it to Pomona, whose eyes widened. She almost fell off her chair, as she whispered it to Poppy who put both hands to her mouth and whispered,

"That _is _terrible!"

Septima looked at them all, a feeling of dread raising in her stomach.

"What?" she asked, her defiant attitude not covering the nerves.

"You - have - to -" Rolanda said, dragging out each word, "kiss-"

She paused, a grin on her face. Septima had a horrible gut wrenching feeling that she knew what Rolanda was going to say. She had already begun shaking her head when the final two words came out.

"Gilderoy Lockhart."

Septima shook her head, desperately.

"Please...no...don't make me! He might get-"

She glanced in his direction and shuddered.

"- ideas."

Poppy looked sympathetic, but said "come on! I had to sing."

"Singing and kissing are too very different things." Septima said, weakly.

"Do it or, so help me, I will personally draw on your forehead, if it is the last thing I ever do!" said Rolanda, in a fierce voice.

"I'd like to see you try!" replied Septima.

"I've got my ways." said Rolanda, slyly.

Pomona nodded and Minerva gave an involuntary shudder.

Poppy stared at Septima with wide eyes and mouthed, "she - will - hunt - you - down."

Septima saw that she was fighting a losing battle.

"Fine!" she yelled, dramatically, "it's not like it means anything. It's just one stupid kiss."

"That's the spirit!" said Rolanda, yellow hawk eyes gleaming. "And don't forget, you have to hold it for 10 seconds!"

Septima took a breath and walked over to where Gilderoy was talking animatedly to Severus Snape. Severus wore an expression that suggested he had been deeply contemplating whether or not to jump out the window.

"Gilderoy." Septima said, in a voice that was high and slightly shaky.

Gilderoy turned towards Septima with a dazzling smile. Severus took the opportunity to slip away.

"I knew you wouldn't resist me for long!" Gilderoy told Septima, still beaming. "They never can, you know!"

"Right." Septima muttered.

She turned back to see all her friends looking eager, even Minerva. Rolanda ushered her forwards. It was amazing how inappropriate everybody became after a few glasses of eggnog.

"Gilderoy." she said again, feeling herself go red.

He continued to smile and she seriously considered taking the lipstick option.

"Gilderoy," she said, for the third time, "I am going to do something, something extremely uncomfortable for me. I'm telling you now that it is a dare and that you shouldn't read anything in to it because-"

She paused. _How to put this politely?_

"Because I really don't like you!" Septima finished.

"Okay?" Gilderoy said, confused but not looking too hurt.

Ignoring the giggling coming from behind her, Septima grabbed him by the fronts of his robes and pull him in to a kiss. As she counted the seconds go by, she felt his hands go around her waist. She shuddered, but didn't move, not wanting to back out on the dare. After ten seconds, Septima pushed him off her. Gilderoy leant back against the bookcase, eyebrows up and mouth slightly open.

Septima flicked her hair behind her shoulders and said, with one hand on her hip, "Hell yeah I'm good!" before spinning on her heel and stalking back to her seat.

"Will someone please Scourgify my mouth?" she said, in a dark monotone.

Poppy and Pomona were leaning against each other for support, with tears streaming down their faces. Aurora was gasping for air, her face bright red. Minerva seemed to be raging a battle with her conscience, not sure if she approved, but still finding it hilariously funny. Rolanda was rolling around on the floor.

"I can't believe you actually did that!" she blurted out.

Septima looked at her with a mock scowl.

"I hate you! I really do!"

Rolanda stared up at her and, still laughing, replied, "I know, dear. I know!"


End file.
